Lost and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale
by AmandaDeLonge
Summary: A Lord of the Rings, Lost crossover...Three Hobbits of the Shire collide with the castaways of Lost. How will their arrival impact the island and do the Others have any relation to Lord Sauron? Inspired by hersheygal... please read her crossover as well!
1. An Unexpected Parting

_Disclaimer: No matter how much I'd like to, I'll never own Lost or_ Lord of the Rings _or the characters or the beautifully crafted plotlines..._

_Summary: Crossover between Lord of the Rings and Lost... Await some extremely Dominic Monaghan-based insanity_

_SHOUT OUT! to _hersheygal _for inspiring me to write this story with her story, _**I thought we were in Lothlórien,Guys Where are we? **_... pending her approval on this story, I'll either keep going or throw it out, so...

* * *

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Sawyer pulled the last of the cardboard packages from the parachute that had appeared out of nowhere and looked into the bottom of the pile. There sat a smooth black sphere a bit smaller than a bowling ball. Sawyer stared at it for a moment before picking it up. He felt a certain power flow through him when he held it. He glared deep into it and saw an eye, bright with fire within it.

Startled, he dropped the ball. It rolled through the dense jungle grass, defying the laws of gravity, toward Charlie. "Bloody hell..." He took off his hoody, and wrapped the sphere in it, then stuck it in his backpack. He stood for a moment and tried to look as if nothing had happened.

Charlie knew that Sawyer had seen it. He couldn't hide it from him, and he knew that Sawyer would want to look into it again… that's how it was just going to be.

"Look, Sawyer, you have no idea what this is and it's dangerous and please just don't get near it, okay?"

"Oh, like you do?" Sawyer retorted. "It's just a big shiny ball. How could it be dangerous?" Sawyer asked, although he had felt the orbs power when he grasped it.

"Yeah, I think I do," Charlie said and took off.

* * *

Charlie breathed gently as he slept, his arm wrapped around his bag to protect it. Sawyer grabbed the strap and gave it a swift tug. The backpack pulled from under him arm and it fell to the ground. He did not stir.

Sawyer unzipped the bag and pulled out Charlie's jacket, unrolling the strange orb from its sheath. He held it between his hands and gazed deep into the center of the ball. A strange energy ran through his body and he tried to pull away from the sphere, but he couldn't.

He saw the hatch and blood and death… the swan, the arrow, the flame, the staff, the pearl… he didn't know what it meant. Then, he saw "him…" the leader of the Others…

A strange voice called to him in a strange tongue, but he understood the deep voice all the same. "What are you planning? How do you plan to fight us? How…"

Suddenly the voice faded, the visions around him collapsed and the real world around him dissolved back into place. Sawyer buckled over and fell and saw Charlie wrapping the orb back up and placing it in the rucksack.

He threw the pack aside and stood leaning over Sawyer. Sawyer lay rigid on the ground, his mouth open, in a sweat. Charlie bent over him. "Sawyer… bloody hell." He grabbed a water bottle from his bag and splashed some on Sawyer's face. Sawyer didn't come to.

"Sawyer! Sawyer!" He shook Sawyer's shoulders.

Sawyer only whimpered. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

"Sawyer… what did you see… what did you tell him?"

"I saw… I saw… death."

"Did you tell him anything? Sawyer, it's important that you…"

"I… I didn't say anything… He didn't get the chance…"

"Are you sure?"

"I… not a word."

"Good then…" Charlie said, relieved. "Go to sleep. And please stay away from this," he said, shaking the pack.

Sawyer would have asked what the damned thing was, but it had taken the life out of him and he fell asleep before he could ask.

* * *

"I've caught another one of them," Rousseau told Sayid as she approached him. "I am not sure about this one. He is different." Before any questions could be asked, she disappeared back into the rainforest.

"Sayid… I'm coming with."

"Charlie, are you really up to this? These things are dangerous. It could be anyone. He could be armed. I am not sure you are capable."

"I'm going with you, whether you say it's fine or not," Charlie said almost defiantly. Something was going on, and he had only the vaguest idea of what that something was, and the idea was ridiculous.

Sayid and Charlie ventured out to the trap. From high in the trees, the person could not be recognised. Sayid cut him down and the net fell from a great height, but it never met the ground as Charlie stood below the net with his arms outstretched.

"Charlie! What do you think you are doing?" Sayid yelled.

Charlie did not respond. He set the small person on the ground and helped him remove the net. He was scared, on the brink of tears, but grateful to be let out of that terrible net.

"Who are you?" Sayid questioned the strangely clad and shoeless small man, who had an equally small sword tucked away inside his belt.

"I am Peregrin, son of Paladin Took of the Shire," he said as calmly as he could muster. "I have been separated from my companions."

" It's okay…" Charlie comforted him. "Everything's going to be all right, Pip."

"Tell me, how do you know my short-name, for I've only arrived just now without a more informal introduction," Young Pippin Took said. An alien warmth came over him with the familiarity of this foreign man's articulation.

Sayid shared in Pippin's bewilderment.

"I guess I know a lot of things about you and your story…" Charlie trailed off. "But, for right now that's not of utmost importance, is it? This is Sayid," he said gesturing toward the man to his left, "And I am Charlie."

"These names are not akin to the names that I have come to know on my journeys throughout Middle Earth…"

"Well, we're not from Middle Earth."

"Are these the Grey Havens then? Very odd, for I imagined the lands to the west to be thick with forest and elf-kind." He surveyed his surroundings solemnly. The air here now was moist and the grassy land damp. The trees were not like those of the old forest or Fangorn. They were lifeless and Pippin, hands to his side as he stood there, came to believe that there were no Ents in this place to the West, sorrowfully with the consequence being that the Entwives were not in this place either. "This seems a forest of a different sort."

"It _is_ of a different sort. Luckily, there's no one here like the old willow who'll swallow you up. But there are a lot more things to worry about on this island than you might think."

"Is there the danger of Orcs in this place?"

"No," Charlie laughed, "these people are worse… but, enough of that. What did you say about your companions? I'll help you find them, I guess…"

"Charlie, do you know what you are doing?" Sayid pressed. Charlie didn't answer.

Pippin answered Charlie's question with the name of his companions. "Samwise Gamgee, son of Hamfast, and Meriadoc Brandybuck, son of Saradoc were in the company of me. Grieving for the return of Frodo…I will assume you know the story…" Charlie nodded, "well, we grew impatient. Denied admittance to the Grey Havens by ship, we took matters into our own hands and borrowed one of the eagles. Upon flying over this place, the eagle was somehow pierced and killed by a small metal stone. We then landed here."

"Eagles? Charlie, tell me what is going on. Obviously this story is not true. Are you just going to listen to some dwarf…?"

"Hobbit, man. He's a Hobbit."

"I thank you generously, kind sir, for using the name with which us Hobbits have become so fond of. I much do prefer the title to 'halfling,' and I am not quite sure how a person of my stature may be considered a dwarf."

"Pippin, you aren't where you think you are. You're in the wrong place, the wrong time, the wrong world."

"Is there an explanation of how we came to be in this, as you say different world?"

"I don't know," Charlie answered, "but before we find that, let's find Merry and Sam." Charlie stood behind Pippin and they began to trek through the jungle. Sayid followed close behind, not sure what to make of any of this.

Pippin's thoughts slowly collected together and set themselves into a strange thought that upon some chance he had met Charlie in some other point in time, but knew it was not fact, for he had for the most part met men only after leaving the Shire and not much again after returning to it. It had been four years since Frodo left for the Grey Havens, and Pippin was now of age… but in his 33 years, somewhere along the road he had known Charlie. Charlie gave of an air of family, of friendship and familiarity. He stopped upon realising the striking resemblance to Merry and wondered to himself if perhaps Charlie was somehow related to the Brandybucks.


	2. The Shadow of Charlie's Past

_Notes: Thanks for liking my story... please read and review... Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I was on vacation for a few days...

* * *

"Might I ask, Pippin, what year is it?"_

"1423 by the Shire reckoning." Pippin answered, happy to be able to provide any answers for this strangely familiar stranger. "Though I suppose the year here is not much the same as I know it."

"Quite right," Sayid said, still incredibly baffled by everything that was happening.

"You didn't happen to bring the Palantír with you by any chance?"

"Well, no. The seeing-stone the King kept to see what is passing in his realm. It is rather curious that you should ask such a question… But might I ask you a question?" Pippin enquired.

Charlie nodded. " How is it that you know so much of my story, of the folk of Middle Earth and of the Hobbits? And if this is some future time yet unbeknownst to me, is not the tale of the war against Sauron something discussed in all books of history?"

"In our world, Pippin, your story, the story fellowship of the ring and the two towers and the return of Aragorn, they never happened."

"But then how is my tale known to you?"

* * *

Charlie sat at the piano, a boy of fifteen, with a pencil in his mouth, attempting to write the last bit of a song he was working on. His fingers moved across the keys and created a beautiful harmony that would accompany his song perfectly. He smiled and wrote the last of the notes down.

The front door opened. "Charlie-boy," his father called to him after arriving home from a hard day's work at the butcher shop, hands recently washed clean of blood and now carrying a thick book in his hand. He listened to his son play and, though he would rather his son do something that would pay off in the end, he realised that his son was good at what he liked and had given up on trying to get him into a trade.

"Charlie, are you good at anything besides that piano and your bloody music?" Charlie wished his father would just accept the fact that he loved music more than anything else and that it was his calling.

"I'm sorry, dad…" he said, turning away from the piano, moving his legs over the piano bench to face his father, his head down, ashamed. Ever since his mother had died his father had been extra hard on him, pushing him in a thousand directions he did not want to go.

Charlie tried to make his father happy. He wished he could be like Liam, a spitting image of Mr. Pace, good at anything he tried, but he wasn't.

Charlie's dad sat beside him on the chair. Charlie expected to be scolded, but instead a heavy volume was placed in his lap.

"Charlie… I realise that you want to pursue something in music. And you know I don't approve, but I'll make you a deal."

Charlie was suspicious. "What, dad?"

"I want you to prove to me that you can do something besides your bloody music."

"How's that?"

"Read this book. If you finish it in six months, I'll let you go down whatever road you feel, career-wise."

Charlie picked up the bulky tome. _The Lord of the Rings_ by J.R.R. Tolkien.

"I'll do that," he said and smiled. His father smiled back and gave his son a pat on the shoulder.

Though on the surface Mr. Pace didn't believe Charlie would finish it in half a year, deep down he knew that Charlie would do anything for his music and actually was happy for his son being able to do this.

Charlie opened the book and was immediately engrossed by the story. "Look, dad, there's a whole chapter about pipe-weed," he snickered as he read.

* * *

"A book," Charlie replied in answer to Pippin's questions. "A book… but, um first, do you have any idea where Merry and Sam are?" Charlie asked Pippin as he followed him through the dense jungle.

"I lost consciousness before I fell, but I believe that I am the only to have lost grip of Meneldor's back. The others, I believe, landed together, for they were closer to the neck of him and had a better hold."

"So you're like the Tailie?"

"I beg your pardon?" Pippin said.

"Never mind," Charlie said. "But do you know what direction you were heading?"

"I suppose he was leading that a way," Peregrin said, pointing toward the beach," but the Sun has shifted since my landing and now I cannot be certain."

"The beach…" Charlie said, wondering how Sam and Merry were being treated. Hopefully they were being welcomed by the people on the beach, if they were even there at all.

"Pip, are you sure that the Eagle was dead?"

"I quite hope that I was wrong by saying that he was killed," Pippin said sadly, "but it is nearly impossible for such a creature to be brought down without meeting his demise."

It was sad news to Charlie that such a great creature to be killed. He remembered reading about these Eagles as a kid and marvelling at Tolkien's imagery.

"Alright, Pip," Charlie said when they had nearly reached beach, "prepare to be reunited with your pals."

To Pippin's dismay his two friends were not to be found on the beach and Meneldor the Swift was nowhere in sight.

"Not to worry, we'll find your friends," Charlie comforted Pippin when he recognised the distress in Pippin's face.

"I am sorry, Charlie, but I am not quite sure I will accompany you on this trek," Sayid informed him. "This is all a little… strange for me. I hope you understand."

"Right," Charlie replied, angry but understanding that none of this made any sense really and that most people in their right mind would probably turn him down in the same manner.

"What's going on here?" Kate said, approaching Charlie and Pippin as Sayid walked away. "Who's this?" she said, motioning toward Pippin.

"My name is Peregrin Took," he said, "but you may call me Pippin if you desire," he finished, taking her hand and kissing it gently.

"Charlie, what's going on here?"

"No time to explain, really, we're looking for Pippin's friends, would you like to help?"

"Um, sure," Kate said. "And are these friends also, um, little people?" Kate asked, trying her best to be politically correct.

"Hobbits, if you may, miss," Pippin corrected.

"You mean like in _The Hobbit_?" Kate asked.

"You read _The Lord of the Rings_?" Charlie enquired.

"No, I read _The Hobbit_. But I guess that would explain the height and the hairy feet…"

Pippin looked curious, so Charlie explained to him that _The Hobbit_ was the tale of Bilbo Baggins and that a greater number of people had probably read it compared to his own tale because it was a much shorter tale and also much easier to read.

"I would know your story if they made a movie out of it," Kate apologized to Pippin for not knowing the story.

"Well they were making a movie of it," Charlie explained as they searched, "but the filming was in New Zealand and the day that each of the cast members and crew were flying in, there were a number of plane crashes and they were all lost…" Charlie paused. "Bloody ironic if you ask me. And a shame too, cos it would've made a tremendous film and also," Charlie stopped for a second, thinking hard. "Oh yeah, there was this actor, Dominic Monaghan, bloody brilliant… probably in the same sodding mess I'm in…"

His rant ended abruptly when he saw it, a huge, beautiful eagle laying there with a huge hole in its abdomen. Kate and Charlie stood there wide-eyed while Pippin walked to it and placed a hand against the brown-feathered crown of the animal.

* * *

Charlie's father had given him the chance to finish the book within six months. At first glance, this seemed like a daunting task, for the script was tiny and there were over a thousand pages to get through with. After starting the novel, however, he had fallen in love with the lore, the world, and the characters, and therefore completed it in two months, to his father's dismay as well as secret pride.

Mr. Pace couldn't help but do something to congratulate his son, to show him that he was really fine once and for all with Charlie's music.

The book was finished by the end of November. Charlie's birthday rolled around in early December. He sat inside, very cold, but happy as he unwrapped the few gifts that his father and friends had afforded to purchase him. He finally arrived at the last package, a large rectangular box, and he had no idea what was inside it.

"From dad," he said as he pulled the strips of brown paper from the package. He saw soon that the box read "fragile" and so he set it gently on its side and opened it up. Within the soft paper packaging of the inside of the box was a beautifully crafted acoustic guitar.

"That's taking a bit from your Christmas present Charlie," his father reminded him. "These things don't come cheap, y'know."

He looked at his father and just beamed, and although he quickly learned to play the guitar as well as he had learned to do so with the piano, he never forgot the reason he had earned the guitar, and that reason was _The Lord of the Rings_.

* * *

"Meneldor, my fine-feathered friend…" Pippin said with tears, continuing to stroke the crown of the great bird's head.

"I am alive, Peregrin Took," the bird answered before Pippin could ask him.

Kate jumped back, not thinking for a moment that this beautiful creature could talk, and even Charlie found himself surprised, for it had been quite a while since he himself had read the books and he had long since forgotten that the Eagles were capable of speaking.

"You're alive, but badly wounded I see," Pippin said, assessing Meneldor's wound.

"It will heal in time," he answered, "for I am both quick to soar and quick to heal."

"Maybe Jack should check this out…" Kate said, noticing that the bullet wound in his side looked quite deadly.

"It is doubtful that the medicine of men may heal me better than I may heal myself," the Eagle replied, "but perhaps in this strange place beyond the sea the world moves in a different manner. I also feel that this place has a strange mystic power, different from that of the elves, but in many ways also the same. But I do not believe that these lands are the Grey Havens."

"They're not," Charlie cleared up. "Sorry…"

"Have you spied upon Merry and Sam of late?" Pippin enquired.

"Yes, they are here," he said, moving one wing off the ground to reveal a pair of rather scratched Hobbits. "They have been unconscious since our landing. But, oh…" At the touch of the sun upon their round faces, the Hobbits began to rise. "It seems they have come to."


	3. Three Is Company

_Notes: Thanks for liking my story... please read and review... Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I was on vacation for a few days..._

_

* * *

_Sam was the first to fully awaken. "Bless me!" he said as he rose, "Mr. Pippin, you're here! I was afraid you'd been lost forever, but you're here and all is well. But who are these folks?" he asked, motioning toward Charlie and Kate. 

"We're just everyday Men," Charlie answered. He saw the look that Kate gave him and was forced to explain that the statement was signifying race and not gender. Kate settled down.

Merry got up soon afterward. "Pleasure to meet you, I am Meriadoc Brandybuck. And who might you…"

He paused at seeing Charlie's face. Immediately the resemblance between Merry and Charlie was clear to everyone. Without saying anything, the two agreed that there was really no explanation to this strange likeness and that discussing it too much would be pointless.

"You're not a Brandybuck by any chance?"

"No."

"Right then."

"Um, my name is Charlie Pace, and this is Kate."

"Kate Austen," she said, holding out a hand to shake. Merry blushed and took her hand in his own and kissed it in a very similar fashion to the way Pippin had. Sam just shook her hand.

"Sorry, miss, but I'm married," he explained. "I've got a daughter of two and a newborn son at home as well, and I miss the three dearly."

"That's sweet," Kate smiled.

"I'm not married," Merry pointed out, apparently being quite fond of Kate.

"So how are…" Charlie tried to remember the family tree in the appendix of his book. "…Elanor and Little Frodo?"

"They're quite well, but how do you know their names?" Samwise asked.

"He's read our story, Sam." Pippin answered for Charlie. "Here, it is but a legend."

"A legend, why that's nonsense. Tell me, how can we trust this Charlie fellow?" he asked his companions. "And the only account of our story, at least to date, is in the Red Book. And Sam has that in his pack."

"Oh, come on, Merry. I trust him. He reminds me of you, and you're one of the most trustworthy Hobbits I know, save when you've pinched my pipe-weed."

"But how can we know? Maybe he knows our stories because he's on the other side. Sauron…," he went on, not believing any of it himself. He trusted Charlie. Maybe it was the similitude, maybe it was his manner, but he seemed to know what he was talking about and he surely did not seem to be a minion of Sauron.

"Never mind, then," Merry said. "But you don't happen to have anything to eat?"

"Oh, we've plenty to eat," answered Charlie. But first we'll have to worry about your Eagle friend here."

"Oh, he should be fine," the Hobbits tried to convince him.

"This place seems innocent enough," Merry argued.

"But there're bloody polar bears," Charlie reasoned.

"Bloody polar bears?"

"Think big snowy-white bear."

"Like the hoarfrost bears of Caradhras?" Pippin suggested.

"Precisely."

"Perhaps he is strong enough to fend for himself," Merry said. "Meneldor, will you be fine here until we can find another place for you?"

"I believe so, young Master Brandybuck."

"See, he'll be fine. Now when are elevenses?"

* * *

Charlie brought the Hobbits to the place where all of the newly found food had been stored and the other survivors watched in confusion. Charlie had to explain what was going on to only a few people before he decided to write it down and hand the paper around. Everyone seemed quite welcome to the new additions to the gang until they saw how much they ate. 

The Hobbits marvelled at the strange boxes and were greatly surprised that this boxed food had remained tasteful and had not gone stale.

While the Hobbits ate, Charlie pulled the Palantír from his bag and placed it on the table. "Did any of you bring this?" he interrogated.

"A Stone of Seeing…" Merry whispered. Pippin's eyes grew hungry, but he knew better than to get near it now after the incident with the other Seeing Stone.

"No, Mr. Charlie, sir," Sam answered, wondering how it had ended up in this place. It wasn't the Grey Havens for sure, and sadly Mr. Frodo and Gandalf were nowhere to be seen.

Seeing the thirst in Pippin's eyes, he wrapped the Stone back up and put it back in his backpack. He knew that Pippin would resist the urge to take it, but he couldn't be absolutely sure, and he needed to be sure of his actions right now.

It was a shame that there was no king here. Only an ancestor of Isildur would really be able to use the Palantír without letting the dark Lord Sauron see, and since Isildur lived in a different world, that wouldn't be very possible. Unless Middle Earth wasn't a different world. Maybe it was some kind of pre-history Europe that had somehow been completely lost.

Would that make the Grey Havens the continent of North America? That was an interesting thought. The New World was the bloody Grey Haven.

And if the Palantír was letting Sauron see what was going on in this present time, didn't that mean that Sauron still had to be alive somehow? If two different times existed, both his present and the time of the Hobbits, why wasn't it possible that three existed? The two as well as a time before Sauron had been defeated? And if not three, why not four of five?

Thinking about it gave Charlie a migraine, but it was necessary to figure out what was happening and how he would get the Hobbits back home. They had to get back to their time. They all had families that needed to be created, towns to run, people to meet… He worried that if he sent them back without doing something about this insane time warp that they would just be sent to Europe, and he couldn't let that happen to them. He felt responsible because he was the one who almost understood everything that was going on.

The Hobbits were just as confused in this new place. Nothing was familiar to them. The way these people dressed and acted and spoke was so different from anything they had confronted before. Charlie was really their only link to their reality.

Charlie saw that they were struggling with this change of pace. He searched through his memory for something that the two cultures shared. Finally, he found _something_, though it was hardly sufficient.

"We've built a golf course," he said, now remembering that he had said the same thing to Claire long ago to convince her that the island was a safe place.

Pippin smiled. "The game was invented by Bullroarer Took more than two hundred years ago."

"One of your ancestors," Charlie added.

"Excuse me, Charlie, so you said you've read our story?" Merry asked.

"Yes…"

"So, when does the story end? Do we marry beautiful women and have thirty children each and end up extremely wealthy and happy?"

"I'm not just going to tell you. You'll have to find out when you get back."

"_If_ we get back," Merry said, rather pessimistically. "And if we don't in time, I'd like that you tell us what would have happened to each of us if we would have gotten back."

"Don't say that. You _will_ get back. And soon."

"At least tell me who I marry… do I bring Kate back with me?" he said hopefully.

"No… do you really want to know that badly?"

"Yes."

"Fatty's little sis," he answered.

"Estella?" Merry was a little amazed. He had always felt that she was a bit out of his league. But if she wasn't, he was quite pleased with himself.

"Thank you, Mr. Pace."

"You're very welcome, Mr. Brandybuck."


	4. A Shortcut to Answers

_Notes: Thanks everyone for actually reading any of this... Please review if you have the time... I'm interested in knowing if you like it or not, and if you don't, please give me some suggestions to improve my writing!_

* * *

Jack was having difficulty understanding everything that was going on and even more trouble getting how it was happening at all. "Just, don't try to figure it all out, Jack," Charlie insisted, because he knew it would take hours to explain and he didn't understand anything that was going on himself, "and we'll just deal with the problems that need solutions right now." 

"What do you mean solutions?"

"Well, I just want to get the Hobbits back home. But right now we really should get Meneldor out of the jungle and to someplace safer. The beach, maybe?" Charlie suggested.

"Okay, fine. Just tell me where it is and I'll go get this bird of yours," Jack headed toward the jungle on his own.

"No, Jack… " Charlie started, frustrated that Jack hadn't really been listening to his speech.

"How big could an Eagle get?" Jack asked while Charlie invited Kate and Sawyer to help move the Eagle along.

"Jack, The Hobbits _rode_ here on him. You'll see."

* * *

Claire was interested to meet these new arrivals. She knew at once that these little people were decent and kind-hearted, and related to them at once. Although they appeared quite comfortable here, she could see that they missed home, whatever that might have been for them. 

She introduced herself and the baby to the Hobbits and in similar fashion to their introductions to Kate, Merry and Pippin took her hand and gave it a gentle kiss. Sam kept his hands to his side as he introduced himself, giving a slight bow to the girl that stood before him.

"It's a great pleasure to make your acquaintance," Pippin said.

"Right back at you," she replied.

"It's very nice to meet you, Claire. My name's Meriadoc, but you can call me Merry if you like," Merry said, and looked up at her face for the first time. Claire stepped back, a bit astounded by his similarity to Charlie and Merry noticed for the first time this girl's resemblance to the girl that he was destined to marry if he ever got home. Estella.

"You too," she answered, made almost uncomfortable by the likeness of Merry and Charlie. She still wasn't speaking to him, and talking to the Hobbit made her wish that her relationship with Charlie would be mended someday. She felt that this Meriadoc fellow would play some part in that mending, though she knew not why.

The one roundest around the belly was very keen with the baby. "I've two children at home," Sam told her, "and I can't dream up how Rosie and I would feel if we were trapped in an unfamiliar place with Little Frodo and Elanor right now. It must be rather testing for you I'm sure." He obviously missed his wife and children and wanted to go home very much.

"So, is your husband here, in this place with you?" Merry asked.

"Oh, no. I'm not married," and she had a great sense of déjà vu about her. The Hobbits were almost intrigued by this idea that she was not married and had a child. In the Shire, nearly everyone married. The fact that Bilbo never married was quite a rare exception, and perhaps Frodo might have even married if he would have stayed…

"I'm unmarried as well," Merry butted in once again. If he never got home, he still wanted to be married someday, and since he was supposed to marry Estella Bolger, he reasoned that a relationship with Claire Littleton was the logical thing to do.

* * *

Kate clicked open the handle on he screen door to and walked inside hoping that _he_ was still at work. She knew the drill; you were _supposed_ to dislike your step-parents at first… but it had been eleven years and she saw no improvement with their relationship. 

She hated the way he looked at her. She was _sixteen_ for Christ's sake, and even though she might have been very adult and beautiful for her age, that was no reason for any man to…

"Hey there Kitty-Kate," Wayne said as she came into his view. She simply detested the names he called her sometimes- well, all the time. Sometimes he tried to act like the two were really father and daughter. She couldn't stand the idea.

He sat on a battered old arm-chair, drunk out of his mind with a beer can in his hand, watching some afternoon soap opera because he thought the girls were "just bee-yoo-tee-ful." Kate ignored his calls and began carrying her backpack to her room.

"Did I ever tell you that I'm _royalty?_" he shouted from his worn out reclining chair. She ignored him and hoped he would just shut his mouth. She had heard his story a thousand times and knew it couldn't be founded on any truth. He sure didn't _act_ like royalty.

"I, Katherine, come from a long, _long_ line of kings! We were powerful and mighty and damn, we controlled the world."

"That's really nice," she said and tried to get past him without making eye contact to get into the kitchen for a glass of juice while she did her homework.

"And, y'know what Kitty?"

"What," she said, not even in the form of a question because she knew exactly what was coming up.

"As long as we don't get killed or nothin', we'll live pretty much darn near forever! Too bad we all got a hist'ry of getting' shot n' stabbed n' burnt to a crisp in our sleep!" Now that sounded like a good idea…

"And since you're my little Kitty-Kate, you're a king too," he said. Kate shivered. She thanked God she didn't have to be related to that drunken moron…

* * *

In the jungle, Meneldor was nowhere to be found. The four searched the area around where the great Eagle was rested. All were confused, but Kate seemed more troubled than the rest. 

Sawyer was the only to notice. "What's wrong, Freckles?" he asked, concerned by the look on Kate's face that said that someone was not quite right.

"Well," she explained, "this is where the Eagle was." She pointed to the ground and outlined the area. "He wasn't dragged off, because the grass around the area hasn't been pushed down at all, there aren't any broken branches or even foot prints besides the ones that lead back to camp."

"Well, that's good right?" Charlie asked. "Maybe he was able to get up on his own and he's fine now?"

"You sayin' your little Eagle friend abandoned us?" Sawyer asked, not quite believing everything that he had heard. Charlie looked at his feet.

"I don't think he would just get up and leave without telling us first. Maybe he's flown to the beach? But we would've seen him. Maybe… bloody hell. They took him."

"How is that even possible…?" Jack began.

"I told you Jack, there's no use trying to understand everything that's going on. We just need to resolve these things and get the Hobbits back home."

"So you're saying the Others are involved," Jack said, exasperated.

"There's no way we'll ever be able to know..." Kate began.

"There is. Would it be okay if I questioned the guy in the hatch?" Charlie asked.

* * *

Sam, Merry, and Pippin continued on with their meal while the castaways eyed them nervously. They were really much more concerned with how much these small people ate then where they came from or why they were here or if they had anything to do with all of the insanity involved with the island. 

Sun and Jin came together to the area where all of the food was being stored, soon seeing the Hobbits enjoying their meal there. Confused, Sun asked what was going on and got several very different accounts of the tale from different people, all of whom were not actually there when Charlie and the Hobbits came in from the jungle and had only read the note Charlie had left.

Sun picked up the scrawled note and read it herself, finding her own interpretation of the Charlie's words and began to explain to her husband in Korean who these people were and why. Before long, she was stopped short of her explanation.

Jin muttered many words and syllables that the three could not quite understand, but one of them that he seemed to repeat quite often sounded rather like the word "hobbit."

* * *

Charlie barged into the hatch, Ana-Lucia standing guard over the locked vault door and Locke, crushed leg mending well, sitting at the computer waiting for the timer to click down. 

"I need to talk to your little prisoner," Charlie told Ana-Lucia.

"I can't just let anyone in there," she replied. "It's not… safe. You'll need someone to make sure he doesn't pull any tricks, and I don't have a gun."

"I do," Jack said, following Charlie into the hatch. He pulled the gun and got it ready in case "Henry Gale" made any sudden moves and would have to be put down.

Charlie hoped it wouldn't have to come to that. He needed answers.

He hadn't yet met this detainee. When the combination was done on the vault door and it came swinging open, he didn't quite know exactly what to expect. He could sense immediately that this man was not a good person, just as Sayid had. The man in the cell seemed almost inhuman.

"You told Locke that the man Jack and Kate saw, with the beard… he's not important, is he?"

The prisoner sat there, not answering Charlie's questions.

Charlie went on. "You said there was a greater leader… _him_, you said. And you said he was much worse than anyone else…"

"You can't _fathom_ his power," the man replied, a bitter edge on his voice.

"Whose power?" Charlie asked, supposing that he already knew the answer but wanting to hear it aloud because it was really too nonsensical to be the truth.

"The Necromancer, the Black One, the Nameless, the Dark Lord, he who is the embodiment of all evil…" Henry went on.

"Sauron."


End file.
